Love Reunion: Entwined Hearts Christmas Novella Page 5

  After that phone call, I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid, not even when my parents passed away. I cried like a baby. Callum knocked at my door twenty minutes later. I’d stopped crying by that point and I let him in, and when he asked what was wrong, I explained.

  Then he kissed me.

  “You’ll love only me forever?” I ask Rich. My voice is raw, but after staring at each other for what felt like hours, I knew I had to say something.

  He only nods and drops his bag. I push up from the floor and grab a couple of tissues, dabbing my eyes dry. Then I stop and really take him in, my husband, the man who has been my rock for more years than I can remember.

  He’s looking slightly unkempt. The stubble isn’t new, truth be told I like it. He’s wearing a long ribbed navy sweater teamed with black Levi’s and boots. Although his clothes seem a little on the crumpled side, which could be explained by the travelling he’s done to get here, there’s something off about him, a sadness that surrounds him. Then, like a knife in my stomach, I realise why he’s here.

  I gasp, throwing my hands over my mouth momentarily before letting them drop to hang by my side. “You’ve come back to sort out a divorce, haven’t you?” I cry taking a step back and feeling the sting of the hot radiator which is turned on full blast now that we’ve slipped into November.

  I watch every minuscule detail of Rich’s face as a war of emotions reigns in his eyes.

  “He kissed me,” he finally speaks.

  I can no longer hold in the pain and the wail that comes out of me coupled with the fall of tears, weakens my stance and as I topple over, Rich lunges forward and catches me.

  “Get off me!” I hiss through the pain and sobs that now inflict my whole body.

  “Shhh…” he soothes while tenderly rubbing my back.

  I hate that his touch is the only thing I need right now. I want to hate him, but I can’t. I’ll always love this man. My mind is made up in the blink of an eye, and as I curl into his body, I decide that I’ll give myself this one last thing from him. I’ll allow him to hold me, comfort me, pretend that he still loves me while I let the ebb and flow of pain drag me into sleep.

  “How long has he been asleep?” Soph asks, startling me from the trance I was in.

  I look up at her from my seated position on the cold kitchen floor. My only saving grace is the radiator behind my back keeping me warm. I twist my head to the clock.

  “Nearly four hours,” I say and frown when I realise that’s how long I’ve been down here sitting still in this position while Eric sleeps.

  “You need to get off the floor, Rich. Wake him up,” she says softly.

  I shake my head. “No. When I saw him, I realised how rough these last few weeks have been on him. Especially since he got here, and we’ve been apart. He needs this rest. Plus, I’m not sure what will happen when he wakes up… with us.” I cough quietly and swallow the emotion building.

  I hate thinking that this could be the last time Eric lets me hold him.

  “Why? Things haven’t gotten that bad… have they?” she questions, worry lines appearing on her forehead.

  I shake my head. “I hope not. I really do,” I tell her sincerely. “When is Saul back?” I ask.

  It’s Soph’s turn to glance at the clock. “In about five hours’ time.”

  “Okay. I’ll wake him soon. We need to spend some time together. So if he allows me to, I’m going to take him back to our flat.”

  Soph nods and bends at her knees. “You’ll sort it out. I have faith in you, Rich,” she tells me, leaning forward and kissing my cheek. “Love you,” she relays before walking back out.

  I hear the soft click of the front door, and then I allow a single tear to roll down my cheek, knowing I could lose him. I could lose them all.

  My head throbs and I squeeze my eyes shut not wanting to face the light, face the world… face the truth.

  “Eric.” The deep timbre of Rich’s voice sends butterflies to my tummy, and I want to curse my body for betraying my mind. Instead, I open my eyes and see a bright grey pair of bloodshot eyes staring back at me. “I want to take you home. We need to talk.”

  I don’t answer him, scared that if I open my mouth, a wail may be all that comes out. I’m not ready to let him go, but I can’t stop him, I can’t make him love me. I nod and allow him to help me to my feet. The tender touch of his hands makes my lip quiver, and I decide that I’m going to savour every moment, knowing I might not have any of it soon.

  Silently, Rich grabs his bag, and we make our way outside. I’m not surprised to see his Audi on the kerb. It was in long-term storage next to the airport. He opens my door, and I slide in. As we pull away, I rest my head against the window and watch the world go by. It’s dark now and I look up toward the sky, but in the window all I can see is Rich’s face in profile as he drives us home.

  Home.

  The word circles around and around in my head, making me feel sick. The thought of not sharing it with him anymore has me clenching my tummy.

  Will I still have a home? I know the answer… not if Rich doesn’t live there.

  “Come on.” Rich breaks me out of my sad thoughts when we arrive back at our flat.

  The minute we’re through the door, I can’t handle all the unsaid words anymore.

  “You kissed him?” The words come out scratchy, and a hard pain in my chest makes me breathless.

  “No. I said he kissed me.”

  “There’s a difference?” I throw out. Logically I know there’s a difference, but I’m not the most logical of people at the best of times, let alone when I’m emotional.

  “Yes.” The word is pushed out through his clenched jaw, and I suddenly wonder why he seems to be angry.

  “You’re angry with me?” I snap.

  “No.” He sighs and sinks into our soft brown suede sofa. Bringing his elbows to his knees, he rests his head in his hands. “I’m angry with me.”

  I go to sit next to him and allow my leg to rest against his. I hear his small sigh and watch as one hand drops from his head and latches onto my thigh.

  “You told me over and over that Callum had a thing for me. I thought you were just being jealous.” He shakes his head sharply. “I thought even if you were right, that I’d been more than upfront with Callum. He knew I was married. He even knew that I was still completely in love with you.”

  His words cause a flutter of warmth to burst inside my chest.

  “I never thought he would cross the line. I’m sorry,” he admits, and the sweet relief is almost too much.

  “So what now?” I ask.

  “Now?… Well, I guess, that depends on your feelings. I still love you, always have and always will. I need you, Eric. I won’t fucking give up on us, I warn you now.”

  A sloppy smile graces my face, but it quickly turns into a frown and a hot salty tear escapes my eye as I think about him kissing someone else.

  “You kissed him back?” I ask painfully.

  He shakes his head. “No. I did punch him, though.” He chuckles quietly.

  My body jerks at his answer. “What?” I semi-shout.

  Rich shrugs. “I told him I was married, that I loved you. As far as I was concerned, he crossed a very clear line. I knocked him on his arse, told him never to darken my door again. I said if he thought he could go through life trying to take things that were never his, then he would end up very lonely and bitter. I explained that you were the only person I’ve ever loved and that nobody… no one could ever replace you. Ever.”

  I can’t contain myself any longer and throw my whole body into his. Rich isn’t completely surprised, he’s loved me for years and can judge my reactions before I even know what I’m going to do myself sometimes.

  Planting my lips against his, he doesn’t resist, and his tongue quickly finds mine as we wrestle on the sofa. Before we get too hot and heavy, I pull away and stare into his eyes.

  “I’ll always love you, Rich. You know that, rig
ht?”

  He nods and runs a finger down my cheek.

  “It’s always been you for me. I wouldn’t want someone manlier or whatever the fuck you came out with before. I would never have asked you to marry me if you weren’t exactly what I wanted, just as you are.” He smiles, as I get teary eyed again. “I’m even digging the stubble,” he adds with a grin.

  “Well don’t get used to it, big boy. It feels wrong and dirty,” I reply arching my eyebrow.

  “I’ll show you dirty,” he growls back at me with a smirk, and I know my eyes light up when he carries me to our bedroom.

  It’s been a month since we got back. Christmas has well and truly started in the shops, and the kids are excited. I’m starting to settle back into life in London. Soph and Saul are good, and after explaining what happened with Rich, Eric is now firmly back in the honeymoon stage of his relationship, no matter that they’ve been together for years. It’s beautiful so see all my family so happy. Soph talked to me, Pea, and Eric a week or so after Saul and she had sorted their issues out.

  “It was amazing. He was so forgiving,” Soph gushed, almost crying with happiness or relief. I couldn’t work out which. Maybe it was both.

  “Did you expect him not to be? It takes two people Soph, this isn’t all on you,” Pea stated, confusion evident in her eyes.

  “I know and he did say that we were both at fault, but I wasn’t sure if he’d want me back… I’m not entirely sure what I expected.” She shrugged. “There were photos…” Soph trailed off, and suddenly we were all sitting a little straighter on the comfy sofa Pea had convinced Con to buy the day after they arrived home.

  “Explain,” Eric bit out, a frown causing wrinkles on his forehead.

  Soph looked down and shrugged, a blush crept up her neck, and I wondered what the hell was going on.

  “Soph?” I questioned.

  Her eyes flitted to me and then to the others before she sighed. “Okay, there was one photo on social media. A woman had her arm draped around him.”

  “Just the two of them?” Pea asked her carefully.

  “No,” she whispered. “There was a group of them in a bar somewhere.”

  “Honey, I know you’ve been tender lately. Things have hit you hard, and you haven’t coped as well as you might have done before…” Eric’s words were as gentle as possible, and he edged closer to her, grabbing her hand. “The thing is, Callum…” he spat the name of the guy who had tried to steal Rich out of his mouth like it was going to poison him, and he shook whatever remaining thoughts he had away before he continued, “…he tried to lure Rich away from me. Little bastard. Bitches be crazy, baby doll. They’ll do anything to get who they want. The point you have to remember is that Saul would never cheat on you.”

  Soph offered Eric a strained smile. “I know. I asked him about her, he explained that she had shown interest. Nothing as obvious as Callum did.”

  I shivered at the thought of Dane and me being stuck in that scenario where a woman wanted him so bad that she pretended to be his friend then kissed him, just to lure him away from me. It was enough for me to pull my phone out and text Dane.

  Me: Thinking of you.

  Not thirty seconds later my phone vibrated.

  Hubby: I’m always thinking of you baby. It’s usually dirty.

  I smiled and tucked my phone away.

  “Did she do anything specific then?” Pea asked, bringing my thoughts back into the room.

  Soph shrugged. “He didn’t say much. Just that she tried to flirt, he didn’t flirt back and then made it clear he was happily married even though back then that was a lie. He wasn’t happy.”

  “So what? You don’t believe him? Is that it?” I asked cautiously.

  “No, it’s not that,” Soph admitted, her voice trembled. “It just made me realise how close I came to losing him. How stupid I was.” The tears formed in contradiction to the smile she also wore.

  “I’m lucky, I know that. I’ll never fuck up again,” Soph said with a little giggle. She pulled the sleeve of her jumper over her wrist and wiped her running nose.

  “Oh my God. You did not just do that, missy!” Eric screeched, and we all laughed.

  Our afternoon lightened considerably after that, and we managed to pull together a finger food feast for when all our men arrived back from the gym, a trip they had relished returning to since we were all in the same location again.

  I hear the lock turn in the front door, and know that Dane’s home. Quickly drying my hands from washing the dishes, I turn and rush to him. Even after all these years, I still get butterflies when he comes home. As I arrive in front of him, he drops his gym bag and lifts me into the air and my legs automatically circle his waist.

  “Oh God… get a room,” Lottie complains as she walks down the stairs.

  “We have a room. In fact, we have a house. You’re welcome to get a job and move out,” Dane teases her. She just rolls her eyes. “I’m going out.”

  Dane is about to question her, but I grab his chin in my fingers and pull his lips to meet mine, his thoughts are soon fully immersed in kissing me as I moan into his mouth and his tongue sweeps inside mine.

  Once we have both calmed down and pulled apart, he stares at me for a moment, still holding me against him. “You were my miracle, Nova. You still are,” he says tucking a stray hair behind my ear.

  I don’t ask him what he means by that. I’ve learnt over the years that Dane often says random things explaining how much he loves me. I’ve told him time and time again that he doesn’t need to say anything, I know exactly how much he loves me. He would have died for me, giving your life to save the person you love? I can’t think of a bigger way to show just how important someone is to you.

  He lowers me to the floor. “Come, I want to talk to you,” he says dragging me by the hand and seating me on his lap in the living room.

  “I hope this isn’t going to be one of your X-rated talks. The boys are upstairs,” I tell him with a grin.

  Dane chuckles. “No baby. This is serious.”

  My face clears of mirth, and I instantly worry.

  “Relax Nova,” he says running his finger down my cheek and across my lips. Automatically, I suck it into my mouth and let my tongue swirl around the digit. Dane groans, and his eyes darken. “This will be an X-rated talk if you keep that shit up,” he says, his voice strained, and I can feel his crotch is too.

  Giggling, I let his finger go. “Sorry,” I reply coyly, but I’m not really sorry at all.

  Dane shakes his head and then the moment is gone.

  “I spoke to an old contact today.”

  My body stiffens in response to his words, and Dane rubs his hand up and down my spine soothing me.

  “Don’t stress, baby, not that kind of contact,” he explains, and I relax.

  There was a time that Dane still kept in touch with the people from his past. The only problem with that was those people were—like him—trained to kill.

  “It was with a judge I know. I asked him to look into the boys, Saul and Soph’s boys. I explained the situation and told him I wanted someone who could access their records to let me know they were okay. I figured at least I could give Soph and Saul some good news. Hopefully, tell them that they were happy.” Dane rubs the back of his neck.

  “What is it?” I ask, worry now spreading in my gut.

  “I asked him before we came back to London. He called me today. The kids went missing—”

  “What?” I screech not allowing him to finish.

  “It’s okay, they have been found.”

  I feel my shoulders loosen, but only slightly.

  “Their mother took them up north. Then she went back to her old tricks, drugs, prostitution and leaving the kids alone for days at a time. When social services was alerted to them by a neighbour, they took them away again.” Dane shakes his head with annoyance. “The problem was that they had no reference of where the kids come from. There were no real documents with their name
s or anything. Anyway, with some poking around by my contacts, they were tracked down.” Dane lays his head back against the cushion. “The thing is, the judge asked whether I wanted those boys brought back under the social services jurisdiction here in London.” Dane heaves out a sigh. “That would mean it would be under that lady… Wendy was it?” I nod in reply to his question. “Anyway, they would be under her care. I know she’d offer the boys back to Soph and Saul, but with everything they’ve been through since the boys were taken away, I’m worried about what pressure it might put on them. Especially if they got them back and then, they were taken away again. They might not get through another episode.”

  Dane rubs his hand down his face, and I can now see how much this has been weighing on his mind.

  “Dane,” I say softly waiting until he looks at me again. I thread my hand into his hair. “You don’t need to think about this. You know what to do.”

  He nods. “I know. I guess I just needed to hear you confirm it.” He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls his phone out, pressing some buttons with one hand and holding it to his ear.

  “Morris… Yeah… Bring them back… Get them to hand them back to my brother. Just see if you can do anything to make it permanent... Thanks... Appreciate it.” Dane ends the call.

  I push my other hand over his shoulder and bring his attention back to me. Leaning forward, I know what I want to do, and also what I need to do to make him loosen up and not worry.

  I press my lips to his ear and let my tongue journey around the shell, biting the lobe as I reach it. “It’s good that my husband built me such a big house, with so many rooms. Right now our sons are playing on the Xbox and will be busy for at least another two hours. The downstairs bathroom is free, it has a lock and a massive shower. It seems I’m dirty. I need cleaning, but I’m not sure if soap will do it...” I lean back and meet Dane’s fiery eyes tapping my finger to my lips like I’m considering my options. “I’m thinking I need someone to lick me clean… all over.”